Looking invincible, Pittsburg raced to a three-touchdown lead in its first state-championship game only to fall hard, losing 28-21 to Narbonne-Harbor City in December’s CIF 1-A title game in Sacramento.

“We blew it,” Pittsburg coach Vic Galli said this week, sounding as if the game ended only moments before. “But (stuff) happens. We got there. We know what it takes. Now we have to finish.”

Trey Turner — Pittsburg’s dynamic starting quarterback — couldn’t get started last season. He tore up his knee in a scrimmage a week before the regular season began. Now a 6-foot-2, 180-pound senior, Turner is back at full strength.

“He’s a fantastic kid,” Galli said. “A 4.0 student. A community and school leader. It’s great to see him out here smiling and working so hard. He’s a great comeback story.”

Chronicle Top 25 preseason football

Rk.

School

2017

LY

Comment

1.

De La Salle

11-2

1

Most athletic DLS team in decade

2.

Pittsburg

9-3

3

Return of QB Trey Turner huge boost

3.

St. Francis

11-4

4

Great line + RB Darrell Page = wins

4.

Serra

13-2

2

Speed + QB Luke Bottari = TD central

5.

Liberty

11-2

6

2017 NCS D1 champs on major rise

6.

Clayton Valley

8-3

10

QB Logan Sumter adds new wrinkle

7.

Bishop O’Dowd

9-3

14

Dragons hungry for another state title

8.

Valley Christian

9-3

7

Skylar Loving-Black a top TE recruit

9.

San Ramon Valley

9-2

8

4-star SS Tristan Sinclair to Stanford

10.

Freedom

9-3

13

RB Giles Jackson major recruit leap

11.

Cardinal Newman

10-3

12

New QB Jackson Pavitt is real deal

12.

McClymonds

14-0

9

Just 12 return from 2017 state champs

13.

El Cerrito

7-2

NR

Boasts five of state’s top 228 seniors

14.

Marin Catholic

12-1

11

DT Jamar Sekona state’s No. 24 junior

15.

Rancho Cotate

10-2

15

Defense must carry Cougars

16.

Milpitas

14-1

5

Trojans inevitably reload

17.

Mitty

5-6

NR

Dual-threat QB Shamir Bey dynamic

18.

Menlo-Atherton

7-5

NR

Expect big Bears’ bounce back

19.

Campolindo

10-5

18

QB Grant Harper to WR Lucas Allen

20.

California

7-4

NR

Big bounce-back year for Grizzlies

21.

Antioch

8-4

19

2014-17 = 34 wins; 2010-13 = 14 wins

22.

Los Gatos

6-6

NR

Cal-bound LB Kyle Smith leads defense

23.

Oakland Tech

8-3

NR

All-OAL QB Cedric Goudy leads way

24.

Aragon

10-2

22

RBs Paul Lautaimi, Camron Grant standouts

25.

Las Lomas

4-6

NR

Coach Doug Longero has team rolling

Read More

The Pirates and Turner have a lot to prove. They have playmakers everywhere with running back Premier Murphy, wide receiver Willie Harts III and Justin Boyd, who last year subbed for Turner at quarterback but is a natural receiver.

Pittsburg is even better in the trenches, led by 6-3, 305-pound two-way tackle Jacob Bandes, who last week received an offer from Clemson. He’s the 15th-ranked senior in California by 247Sports.

“They’re stacked,” De La Salle-Concord coach Justin Alumbaugh said. “They have pieces everywhere. We saw that last year, and they got almost everyone back.”

Pittsburg lost 24-7 to De La Salle in last year’s North Coast Section Open Division final, but with 15 starters back, perhaps this is the team that finally breaks the Spartans’ preposterous unbeaten streak against Northern California opponents. It’s at 291.

The Pirates are No. 30 in MaxPreps’ national computer rankings, the highest they’ve ever started. “On paper, it all looks good,” Galli said. “We’ve got a ton of experience back. We have loads of talent. There should be high expectations. Now we just have to do it.”

The regular season starts Aug. 17, the earliest on record in the area. Here are other notable story lines from the Bay Area’s best teams:

•Hard to ever think of De La Salle as a comeback story, but after losing back-to-back CIF Open championship games by a combined score of 108-54 to St. John Bosco-Bellflower and Mater Dei-Santa Ana, respectively, the Spartans definitely want to prove they are still a national contender. The Spartans fumbled 18 times total in the two games, losing nine. With a stout defense, led by national recruits Henry To’oto’o (6-2, 230), Isaiah Foskey (6-4, 240) and Jhasi Wilson (6-1, 215), a strong set of skill players and superb line play — a program staple — De La Salle is ranked 18th nationally.

•The Spartans’ unbeaten NorCal streak is in immediate jeopardy when it hosts national No. 19 and defending state 1-AA champion Folsom on Aug. 17. This is considered Folsom’s fastest team.

•With the rapid development of sophomore Dorian Hale (6-1, 185), De La Salle should not have any question marks at quarterback.

•Third-ranked St. Francis, the defending state 2-A champion, not only returns the Central Coast Section’s best tailback in Darrell Page (5-10, 185) but also top-100 national recruit Joshua Pakola (6-3, 257), a defensive end.

•Fourth-ranked Serra, another defending state champion (2-AA) from the CCS and West Catholic Athletic League, lost most of its stellar line, but returns quarterback Luke Bottari (5-11, 170) and dominating linebacker Edmond Lahlouh.

• Fifth-ranked Liberty-Brentwood burst onto the regional scene to win its first NCS D1 title last year and coach Ryan Partridge says it was no fluke. “Our goal now is to win an NCS Open Division title,” he said. “We’re no longer the underdogs. We have the guys to do it.” Liberty would need to get through De La Salle and Pittsburg to accomplish that feat and will need a big season from a fast-rising recruit, 6-6, 180-pound junior quarterback Jay Butterfield (son of former Stanford QB Marc Butterfield). His top target, Sione Vaki (6-0, 190), is one of the region’s most productive players on either side of the ball.

MaxPreps senior writer Mitch Stephens covers high school sports for The San Francisco Chronicle.

Mitch Stephens has been writing about high school sports in the Bay Area since LeBron James was born (1984). He spent 16 years in the Alameda Newspaper Group and two years as a freelancer before landing as The San Francisco Chronicle's prep editor in 2002. He accepted a national columnist post with CBS/MaxPreps.com in 2007 and the next year took on both MaxPreps and Chronicle prep content provider roles.

Though he deeply enjoys athletic competition and the games, his speciality is human interest and profiles. He won back-to-back California Prep Sports Writers Association awards for feature writing. Among the many elite Bay Area athletes he's covered as preps are Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Jahvid Best, D.J. Williams, Maurice Jones-Drew and Jeremy Linn. There's no sport Mitch doesn't relish covering and no profile he doesn't find interesting. The high school landscape is a minefield for rich, personal stories.